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Hebrew Massorah

This is a note especially for those Hebrew guys out there:

I know many of the Hebrew specialists out there have been feeling down that there are not as many Hebrew resources as they would like. Well if that's you, this might be something you can help out with. Part of the way users can help each other out is through creating user add-on modules. I have been spending hundreds of hours the past few years producing Greek-related user modules because that's my primary interest. Others have done work which preceded my own and they helped create the first Apostolic Fathers module (in Greek and translation) before any other Bible program had even touched this.

In the past many of these projects have been headed by one or two people, but there are some projects out there that require many more hands to make them possible. This is the project I am introducing now.

Is there any support for a creation of Ginsburg's Massorah into a BibleWorks module? This would be a project that would take as many volunteers as possible in order to divide the workload (which would be rather impossible for one person). There are online PDF versions of the Ginsburg Massorah. The project would be to turn the PDFs into text files which would then be compiled into an user add-on module. If it were done in this form, all the information contained in the Massorah would be provided via the Resource Summary like any of the other Grammars or Lexicons (meaning verse references would work, etc.). This would be a massive project, but with a group of volunteers, it would be possible.

Right now I am looking for feedback. Are there any of you Hebrew students out there who would be interested in making this happen? If there's not enough interest, it won't get done. Leave a note on the forums and let's see if we can't make this happen.

Right now I am looking for feedback. Are there any of you Hebrew students out there who would be interested in making this happen? If there's not enough interest, it won't get done. Leave a note on the forums and let's see if we can't make this happen.

Like you said, it is a MASSIVE understaking, however, I would be willing to participate IF enough people sign on. Otherwise, the project would simply be too overwhelming.

Also, if we're going to produce this for BibleWorks, then I think it only fair that the BW folks make themselves available to lend a hand with certain issues, such as perhaps writing an algorithim or two, if needed. We'll just have to flesh that out, but I do think an official BW hand would be necessary to make this project really work.

Like you said, it is a MASSIVE understaking, however, I would be willing to participate IF enough people sign on. Otherwise, the project would simply be too overwhelming.

Also, if we're going to produce this for BibleWorks, then I think it only fair that the BW folks make themselves available to lend a hand with certain issues, such as perhaps writing an algorithim or two, if needed. We'll just have to flesh that out, but I do think an official BW hand would be necessary to make this project really work.

So, count me in, at least tentatively.

I cannot speak for BW staff obviously, but it's also true there are some very computer savvy BW users out there who hopefully could lend out a hand in some nice computer-geek way. Anyway, the point for right now is seeing if there is human labor to do the work. This would not be a BW-sanctioned activity per-se. It will be a free module done by users, available for other users just like the others.

Anyway, I surely don't have answers to these questions, but this is sure open for discussion by other users to see if this can be attempted. If it can't, it can't, no big deal, but it'd sure be cool if it could

So if people know of ways to make this a more manageable project please add those thoughts here too! Every comment is welcome.

Ginsburg's Massorah in BW, a brief demo

This would be a taste of how this would work. Unzip the attached file and put it in your Bibleworks subdirectory called "databases" (by the way I know this works in BW7, I do not know if this works in earlier versions). Restart BW7. You will then notice the Massorah is available in your Resources column. Also whenever you hit a verse that is in the module, it will show up in the Resource Summary window. Check it out. Get excited and volunteer to help this out

possible methodologies

Simply by glancing through a volume I have at least one idea how the project could be divided (note, no matter how you cut it, it will still be tedious).

If there were a user (this one doesn't even have to be a hebrew student) who would follow an entry/page or two of the Massorah that person would type in verse references (translated into BW format (i.e. ditch the roman numerals, standardize book names)). This person would use this list s/he has typed to create a Verse list.

A second user would then receive the verse list and then it's easy work to go from verse A to B to C, click, click click on the pre-loaded verse-list. This user's task would be to copy the equivalent of the Hebrew word recorded on the PDF into what will be the working text document for the Massorah. This way there is no typing of Hebrew required. It is simply copy Word from verse into text document.

Note there would likely be a snag here or there (perhaps a word doesn't match up with the PDF or something). These would have to be resolved and could be marked such for a temporary duration.

Then after this portion is done there would have to be more file-editing required on the back end to compile this.

So anyway, that's my first rough draft of a game plan to work this puppy. Do those steps sound reasonable and/or achievable? Would any one else have better ideas/methods?

I'm curious (not having had experience in the module-building business) if a PDF --> HTML (or HTM...or even RTF) batch converter would speed things up? I've seen these. Could that take away some of the tedium of the task?

I'd like to know. I also have some other things I want to make into modules. For instance, expired copywrite commentaries (Westcott, Hort, Eadie, Lightfoot, etc., available as PDFs).

[I also have a PDF of Robertson's Grammar, but I understand that's turning into a module at the BW headquarters]

I'm curious (not having had experience in the module-building business) if a PDF --> HTML (or HTM...or even RTF) batch converter would speed things up? I've seen these. Could that take away some of the tedium of the task?

I'd like to know. I also have some other things I want to make into modules. For instance, expired copywrite commentaries (Westcott, Hort, Eadie, Lightfoot, etc., available as PDFs).

I welcome answers from others, but my personal knowledge is that there is no quick way to go from PDF to HTML or any other format. There are programs to copy Latin font PDF's I believe, but the Massorah would not be an option for this at all obviously. Of course I'd love to be corrected Especially in this case the PDFs are not documents that were turned into PDF format, but document images joined together into PDF format. Perhaps it is possible to go from document PDF to some other format, but I don't think an image PDF could do that. At best it would require some kind of OCR software and I dont believe the image quality on the Massorah is good enough that any OCR software would do much good. Check out CCEL for instance on how they go from images/PDFs to the ThML